Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/480

410 he used to gather as many as fifteen dozen in a morning. These were pickled, packed in small barrels, and sent into England, where they commanded a ready sale; but the practice had been discontinued for about sixty years. According to the old man's statement, it would appear that the young birds were taken regularly for at least twenty years after the wreck of what he called "the Rooshian barque," the particulars of which disaster had often been related to him by his parents.

The custom of farming the young Puffins is evidently an ancient one; it is alluded to by Edward Pugh ('Cambria Depicta,' 1816). In his description of Puffin Island, he says:—"I was a little surprised to find so desolate a place, extending threefourths of a mile, and literally half covered with those indolent birds called puffins.... We walked to the extremity of the island, the boatman frequently shoving his arm up to the shoulder in the burrows, and bringing out the young puffins, to examine whether they were ripe, or fit to take." The island was "farmed" by the Bulkelys "to this man, and one or two others, who take the young birds when not yet able to fly, pickle, and put them in barrels of 12 inches long; then they are sold at about three or four shillings per barrel, sent to different parts of England, and are considered a great luxury."

A few demonstrative Oystercatchers, and a pair of Lapwings evidently had young on the island, and Rock-Pipits were nesting in several places on the cliffs. The Sheld-Duck is usually associated in one's mind with warrens, marshes, and coast sandhills, and we were rather surprised to flush a party of sixteen adults from the top of the cliff, between 100 and 150 ft. above the sea, and to find at this spot that the birds were nesting. In one Rabbit-hole we found eight fresh eggs on a nest of light grey down, within arm's reach, and pieces of down at the mouths of other burrows showed that there were more nests in close proximity.

We saw a pair of Carrion-Crows, and on the Puffin ground a Lesser Black-backed Gull repeatedly swooped at a young Crow which cowered amongst the pink thrift. There is hardly any cover for hedge-building birds, but Blackbirds, Thrushes, and Hedge-Sparrows were feeding young in a small patch of brambles, stunted elders, and thorns on the lee-side